Don’t Let Nostalgia Sabotage Your Business

The following is a guest post by ChopDawg.com, an award-winning app development company that has worked with over 180+ startups and companies from all around the globe, helping them bring their web apps, mobile apps, wearable apps and software ideas to life.

“Hey, just wanted to follow up on my previous message. Would love to connect when you have a moment”

I had tried for days to get this guy to respond to me.

We had exchanged some emails early on; then he went quiet which was holding up a business deal I was particularly interested in pursuing.

Out of frustration, I sent a follow up in a text message as well.

The result?

I got a text back in about 90 seconds!

A tool that 5-10 years ago would have been an unthinkable method for conducting business conversation has become the best way to reach certain people and for some even their preferred method of communication.

The business landscape has changed so much of the last couple of decades, and the pace isn’t slowing down.

However, so many businesses are still stuck in the mindset of how they are supposed to do things based on how they were always done.

They are more insistent on holding that perfect idea in their head than they are in embracing reality.

Seth Godin talks about this on his blog when he discusses physical books.

He talks about how many of us have this nostalgic draw to hardcover books lining the shelves of our homes on display for all to see.

Row after row of possibility looking back at us on bookstore shelves. And then along came Kindle, shattering our beautiful idea and turning an industry on its head.

Seth talks about people who resist embracing when medium changes versus figuring out how to adapt to it and benefit from it.

Are you still listing a phone number for people to call when you know that you will only check those voicemails once a week (because you hate them) when someone can get a response via email in an hour or less?

Maybe you are still using an old system of index cards or paper binders and catalogs in your business because that is how mom or dad ran it.

You can keep a few for mementos, but you can save a lot of time by switching to more current and efficient means.

What nostalgic idea do you need to put to rest to save money or time in your business?